Category: Christian

M. Scott Peck begins his inspiring book The Road Less Traveled with this profound statement: “Life is difficult!”

Many people today have a different perspective on this. It is easy for us to sit back and want to believe that life should be easy. Instead, the road most travelled is full of complaining about life’s difficulties.

I find that life with Jesus Christ makes life so much easier. However, when one decides to follow Jesus, life is very costly. I believe it is pretty clear in the Sermon on the Mount that living with Jesus actually means walking a road less traveled. Matthew 7:13-14 (NASB) very well describes it. “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

Jesus also makes it very clear that He promises abundant life to those who will follow Him, while at the same time following Him is difficult and very costly. So if we elect to follow Him, we will travel the road less traveled.

It is one thing to be following Jesus for quite some time and then all of the sudden, He drops this question from Matthew 16:15 on us: “…But who do you say that I am?” If you are like me, you want to quickly say, as the disciples said, “You are the Messiah–the Son of the living God.” What we do not expect Him to say is that He must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law; and that He must be killed and after three days rise again!

In fact, the Apostle Peter could not handle those words and so he said in Matthew 16:22, “…God forbid it, LORD! This shall never happen to you.” Suffering and death just did not fit Peter’s concept of the Messiah. Does it fit in ours?

So what is this cost to follow Jesus? He put it very simple in Mark 8:34-35, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.” Denying oneself is probably one of the most misunderstood and misapplied commands of our Lord. The word “deny” means “to resist,” “to reject,” or “to refuse.” In essence, it means to say “no.”

To deny oneself simply means to deny your self-lordship. In other words, it is saying “no” to the god who is me! I won’t bow down to my inward self anymore and I say “yes” to Jesus Christ as my Lord.

“Take up your cross.” Many folks just refer to an illness or a disability as their “cross” to bear. Jesus means much more than that. Jesus carried His cross through the streets to His own crucifixion. When a man carried his own cross through the streets, for all practical purposes he was a dead man. A man on his way to crucifixion was compelled to abandon all earthly hopes and ambitions. Jesus was telling us to think of ourselves as already dead, to bury all our earthly hopes and dreams, to bury the plans and agendas we made for ourselves.

Lose your life for My sake. Here is the mystery of the road less traveled. We finally find ourselves when we lose ourselves for Jesus’ sake. But what does that mean? By investing all that we are and have for Him and His gospel. By saying to Him, “Here is my home, my checkbook, my talents and gifts, my brain, my heart, my hands, my feet, my mouth. Lord, all this is Yours. Use it to glorify Yourself and further Your purpose on earth.

The road to Easter goes through Good Friday. The road to new life goes through the death of the old. The road to resurrection goes through crucifixion. Jesus calls us to walk that road, the road He walked.

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A wish, expression, or gift for the wellbeing of another. It can become an act in favor of the one being blessed. Ezekiel 34:26 says, “I will make them and the places around My hill a blessing. And I will cause showers to come down in their season; they will be showers of blessing” (NASB 1995).

Sometimes God blesses us through the hands of friends, relatives or even anonymous donors. The expression of a blessing is one I’ve heard many, many times. A friend of mine was an amputee and a youth director at a local church. He had only one leg and the other was a prosthesis. He had learned to walk very well with the prosthesis, sometimes unknown to others. He was handicapped and had a handicap placard that he kept in his car. Handicap placards are a blessing in themselves to those who need them. One day he parked in a handicap parking space and got out to go in the store. A lady saw him exit his car and walk towards the store and she didn’t even notice his prosthesis and immediately said, “You’re not handicapped, why are you parking there?” With a smile he quickly reached down, raised his pant leg up, and knocked on his leg like you would knock on a door and she heard the thud, thud, thud. Needless to say, she was quite embarrassed. He smiled and said, “That’s ok ma’am, it happens quite often.”

My friend was blessed beyond measure and he praised God daily for the fact that he had a prosthesis and was still able to serve God in his role. The following year my friend died from complications during surgery while still in his 30’s. He left behind a wife and young child. One of his favorite sayings was, “I just want to be a blessing.”

Wouldn’t be great if people had that kind of attitude every day. I know people have bad days and that’s normal. But if everyone would rise up in the morning and thank God for fact that first of all, they still have breath and can arise from bed. It doesn’t matter what time of the day you arise, it only takes a moment to whisper a prayer to God and thank Him for giving you breath and the ability to get up. For there are many who suffer infirmities and are unable to get up. Every Sunday I shake hands with a man at our church and he always says, “I still have breath and I’m able to stay above ground.” He says that with a smile and is always a joyful person.

Every day, whether we realize it or not, we receive a blessing from God. It is always a blessing to live another day. Now I just want to be a blessing to someone. Would you be a blessing to someone today? I pray God’s blessings for you today.

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What comes to your mind when you think of home? Is it where you live or where you were born or where you were raised? I personally think of home as where I was raised, and yes I was born there as well. Home has a very sentimental value to it, don’t you think?

How long has it been since you’ve been back home? To me, it has been somewhere around 30 years ago. I probably wouldn’t recognize the place anymore. Times are changing and the surroundings are also changing. My house used to be out in the country, but now it is in the city limits. In fact, when I look at Google Earth, the house is no longer standing. A business next to an apartment complex occupy the spot now. The orange grove across the road is now a golf course and the dirt road is now paved. I hate to think of what it looks like to drive by the old home place now.

I think now of the people in the Paradise, California area who are still sifting through their properties trying to find something salvageable due to the fires in that area. It is heart-breaking to think of what they are going through right now. Not only were homes lost but over 85 lives were lost due to the fire. Years of memories have literally gone up in smoke.

Now imagine how you would feel if you returned home to find everything burned to the ground. What feelings go through your mind? Are you angry, sad, grief-stricken, overwhelmed, or what? Going back home for these folks takes on a whole new meaning.

As I’m preparing my Sunday School lesson, these thoughts are running through my mind. Jacob was instructed to go back home after living and working for his father-in-law Laban for 20 years. God had blessed him with wives and children. These folks had never been to Canaan where Jacob was raised. But, because God told Jacob to go back home, he talked about it with his wives, Rachel and Leah, and they agreed to go.

Jacob had realized back in Bethel that God was there with him. Now he realizes that God will be with him even when he goes back to Canaan. There were plenty of unknowns he would face. Would his brother Esau kill him or would he accept him. To me the important thing to remember is that God is with him. That, in itself, would be good enough for me, as it was for Jacob.

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As I was teaching the Sunday School lesson this past Sunday, I mentioned how James tells us in James 5:7, that we’re to be patient “…until the coming of the Lord.” We hear that often, don’t we? Today we use the term, “just around the corner” when we refer to something about to happen. I’ve heard that the Lord will be coming soon all my life and I’m pretty sure you have as well.
That was God’s plan from the beginning to send His Son Jesus to save the world of its sin. Few Old Testament verses are better known than that of Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign; Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel” (NASB).
The New Testament writers profoundly believed that in Christ the great messianic promises of the Old Testament found supreme fulfilment. The records of both Matthew and Luke support the belief that this prophecy had specific fulfilment in the birth of Christ.
Isaiah’s prophecy was given during the reign of Ahaz when Jerusalem was suffering pressure from a confederacy formed by Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah, son of Remaliah, king of Israel (2 Kings 16:5; 2 Chronicles 28:5-6; Isaiah 7:1). The fall of the Northern Kingdom, then called Israel, had not yet taken place.
To protect himself against Rezin and Pekah, Ahaz sought an alliance with Tiglath-Pileser III, king of Assyria, sometimes called Asshur, and was depending on that alliance for help. The prophet Isaiah was vigorously opposed to the alliance. Ahaz was placing greater confidence in the assistance of a heathen king than in the help of God. Isaiah told Ahaz to believe that if the people would turn to God, then God would deliver them out of this crisis. He simply told Ahaz to ask for a sign from God as a guarantee that God’s assistance would be given.
Ahaz refused to ask for a sign and Isaiah gave him a sign anyway and told him those famous words in chapter 7:14, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign…” We all know that the sign was a child would be born of a virgin and his name would be Immanuel.
Looking back upon this marvelous assurance in the light of the New Testament, we must interpret the prophecy as having its highest fulfilment not in an event in Ahaz’s day, but in the coming of Him who is the Word that “…became flesh and dwelt among us…” (John 1:14). The New Testament affirms, Christ truly is “…God with us…” (Matthew 1:23). The name Immanuel means exactly that, “God with us.”
So how near is God? If you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you know that God and Jesus and the Holy Sprit are all One and the same. What we speak of now about the Lord coming is His second coming, when He will rule the world. And that time is known only by God Himself. By having the Holy Spirit within us helps us to live a life “in Christ” here on earth. We now have the assurance that we will live with Christ forever! That is worth rejoicing over!

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Life is full of decisions. We make them every day. We decide whether we want or need to get up in the morning. We decide whether we want to eat breakfast or grab something to snack on. We decide what we are going to wear today. These are just a few of the decisions we make each day. Suffice it to say we will make several decisions just today. In fact, you will decide whether to continue reading this post or you will dismiss it and go on about your business.

We began making decisions back when we were tiny little tots. We made some bad decisions too. Do we stick that toy with a point into that wall socket or not? Do we climb out of our crib or not? Do we use our crayon to write on the wall or not? I could go on and on about that too. We are just going to make decisions today. In fact, if you think about it, you have already made many decisions today.

We are tempted in every way to make decisions. Once again, we have been making those decisions all our life. And if you think about it, we often make the same decisions every day. As we mature, our decisions are often predicated on temptations. We are faced with many major temptations as we reach maturity.

There are just too many temptations out there for young people to say “yes” or “no” to. One decision they may have to make is to say “yes” or “no” to drugs and alcohol, just to name a couple. Many young get started because they just want to see what it’s like. To some, it will teach them that it tastes awful or it’s not too bad.

The second decision they make is will they remember what their parents told them about drugs and alcohol? Then they must decide to just say “NO” and walk away from it.

Another decision is whether they want to belong to a certain group. Many groups are really up to no good! If they follow that group, then they may end up in some trouble or even worse. Gangs are so prevalent today. Our young people really need to watch who they like and want to follow.

Proverbs 2:1-22 teaches that the pursuit of wisdom brings security. Very plainly it begins with the words, “…if you will receive my words and treasure my commandments within you.” There are several other “ifs” mentioned in the first four verses. Isn’t this what we try to teach our children? When there is the word “if” mentioned, there is most always the word “then” that follows. Verse five begins a series of “then’s” that follow.

The “if” represents a decision that every young person must make. He can either go in the way of Wisdom and find life, true love, and most importantly God, or he can turn his back on her and find only bitterness, isolation, and death. Here’s the important fact: one cannot opt out of making this decision or choose a little of one and a little of the other. If we fail to present this stark decision to young people, many will go in the wrong way and never even know they had a choice.

Here is the one decision every person must make in life. Will you admit you are a sinner and accept Christ as your Lord and Savior, or will you deny Him and spend eternity in the depths of hell? If you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then you will have eternal life with Him. If you refuse to accept Christ, then you will live in eternal punishment in hell. This is the decision only you can make. God gave you the ability to choose. This decision now belongs to you!

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I’ve heard it said many times, “the pastor has the easiest job!” Well that depends on what you’re referring to as a job. As a retired pastor myself, I never looked at my position of pastor as a job, even though I was paid for doing it. The position of pastor is a calling. And that calling is to serve God when and wherever the Lord calls him. The calling of pastor is not something you seek but you accept.

Jeremiah 1:5 says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; . .” (NASB). The Lord was telling Jeremiah that He had planned his life and it radically impacted him. Even the Apostle Paul was told that God had “. . . set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, . .” (Gal. 1:15 NASB).

Pastors are not super human nor are they exempt from sin or even discouragement or depression. A long time ago Job cried out in his despair in Job 3. 24“For my groaning comes at the sight of my food, and my cries pour out like water.25For what I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me.26I am not at ease, nor am I quiet, and I am not at rest, but turmoil comes” (NASB). In fact, no one is exempt from discouragement.

Tom Landry, former coach of the Dallas Cowboys said, “I spent the first thirty-five years of my life, like most men in our competitive American culture, thinking success, fulfillment, and happiness would result from what I could achieve. My feelings of self-worth and my identity as a person were dependent on what I could do—first as a professional athlete, then on the sideline as a coach.

I’ve spent the last thirty-five years learning that God is far less concerned about what we do than He is about what we are. So what truly matters most in life is not our professional achievement, but our personal relationships—first with God, second in our families, and then with others we work and live among.

I’ve known a lot of guys who have tried to prove themselves ‘a man’s man.’ But it’s so much more important to be ‘God’s man.’”

Even with the success Tom Landry had, he still faced discouragement when Jerry Jones bought the team and soon fired him.

Pastors can be immeasurably hurt by unfriendly, unwarranted criticism. He can fall into despair over the apathy, indifference and lack of cooperation on the part of his congregation.

Perhaps one of the most troubling things people don’t realize is that when the pastor enters into a private counseling session with a church member and listens to the member unveil the hardships or heartaches that member is experiencing. As pastor, that has to remain confidential and he must learn to leave it with the Lord. Otherwise, it will eat at his heart and mind and lead to depression.

After I retired and joined a local church I became quite pleased and so blessed by our pastor. He was such a tremendous teaching pastor and the Lord used him mightily.

My wife and I had been members for some time when out of the blue, one Saturday afternoon we received word that our beloved pastor had taken his life at a remote location. I had learned he had been suffering from depression, but we never knew it. This was not only devasting for our church but for his family.

Yes, pastors suffer discouragement and depression. I knew the repercussions of sitting and listening to church members unload their minds in confidence. I thank God for taking the private sessions off my mind and heart so that I would not have to deal with them alone.

Today, I was devastated to read of another pastor taking his own life in California. The church there was devastated and so was his family. Yes, pastors do get discouraged and depressed!

Let me encourage you to pray for your pastor daily. You will not know how much it means to him and at the same time, he needs your support. I may not be pastoring a church now, but I serve a risen Savior and pray daily for my pastor.

May God bless you my pastor and my brother in Christ!

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While reading from a book entitled Devotional Doctrine by Aaron Armstrong, from the Gospel Project, I read about something that brought me back to an experience in my life as a young boy. I wanted to give credit to Aaron Armstrong for returning me to the following experience.

When I received my first Bible as a young boy I was very excited, not because I wanted to read it, but I wanted people to know I had one. My assumptions when I first began to read it were probably like most people. I assumed it would be a list of commands and moral platitudes that probably didn’t have much relevance to my day to day activities, especially to a young 8 or 9 year-old boy who had recently been baptized. I will openly admit it was very hard to read, much less understand. I found it much easier to just not attempt to read it and therefore, I laid it down and never picked it up again.

Then when I reached maturity and began reading my Bible again, I found moral proverbs and commands that made sense to me. But to my surprise I found something else too. I found a story of the world that made sense, a story of hope for broken people living in a broken world. Not only that, but I found it in a book I could understand. This is a book that rang true unlike any other book I had read.

After years of pretending to be a Christian, I realized at the age of 37 that I was not a Christian at all. I had only been playing the game. When I was faced with the reality of my lostness, I had to make it right as quickly as I could. With that thought in mind, I reached out to my pastor to explain my situation and that I wanted Jesus in my heart. As a great pastor that he was we got on our knees and I prayed that Jesus would come into my heart. Much to my surprise again, the calmness of God’s Holy Spirit opened my heart to allow Jesus to come in and take up His residence.

I believe I’m not the first person to have this experience. I remember early in my ministry when I was green behind the ears and doing some door to door visitation and evangelism. One man I encountered just couldn’t seem to get past the idea that the Bible really was God’s Word. Thanks again to Aaron Armstrong for stating the situation so plainly and nearly describing exactly this man’s case:

It was written by human beings. (True.)

Human beings are imperfect. (True again.)

Anything we’re involved with is going to be imperfect. (Yep.)

Therefore, the Bible must contain errors, which means it can’t be God’s Word. (False.)

So, here’s the question that presents itself: Why does true plus true plus true equal false? And the answer is really quite simple. It fails to take into account one more very vital truth: God’s involvement in writing the Scriptures, or what we as Christians refer to call inerrancy.

It is my opinion then that because God inspired the writing of Scriptures, He protected it from error by the human writers He inspired to write them in the first place. From the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, Article XII, it is important to point out that every word they wrote was free from error, without a shred of falsehood or deceit to be found in it in any way. It was God’s supernatural involvement in its writing that protected the Scriptures from error. Every word is true! What the Bible says about everything is true.

Suffice it to say, God wants us to understand His Word. Let me say it this way: the Bible can be understood with many of the same basic principles of interpretation we use when we read any other book. We intuitively pay attention to context clues, verb tenses, and the literary forms in the text we’re reading.

I will agree that some parts are still hard to understand. Even I continue to struggle with some passages. The problem is that we are simply trying to comprehend the infinite God with finite minds. But since God wants us to know His Word, He helps us understand it. Today, the Holy Spirit illuminates the Scriptures in our hearts and minds (John 14:15-18; 16:7-15).

The man I was witnessing to still couldn’t see how God gives us the desire to be transformed by the truth of His Word. Before the Holy Spirit opened my eyes, I really didn’t understand it either. Aaron so eloquently put it this way: “The idea that God’s Word, the Bible, is true is a struggle for many to believe. But if the Scriptures contain the good news we say it does, let’s never be afraid to call it what it is. God’s Word is true, not because any human being declared it to be so but because God is trustworthy. And because He is trustworthy, we can trust the Word He inspired and helps us to understand (see Matt. 5:18; John 10:35; Titus 1:2; Heb. 6:18). And as we trust the Word and move forward in sharing the message God has given, we can have confidence that many will come to know and believe.”

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I often hear people ask, “How do I know the Lord is speaking to me?” One of the greatest benefits to being a child of God is being able to hear God speak to us personally. There is no possibility of hearing God speak directly to us without a saving relationship with Him. Notice that I said being a child of God. There is no personal relationship with God without knowing Him as our heavenly Father. And that relationship is only possible through a personal relationship with His Son Jesus Christ.

When you receive a phone call from a friend, how do know if its not a friend or family member playing a joke on you? Very simply it’s because you know them. You know them because you’ve spent time with them. You know how they talk or you know their mannerisms. You know the expressions they use, the tone of their voice, their inflection. It all comes with knowing them over the years. That’s the way it is with God, You know Him by His character, His nature, His interests, His joys and His hurts. You know Him by the way He interacts with your life. God is always inviting you to know more than just His voice. In fact, He invites you to know Him. What an opportunity to be close to God!

I’m reminded of the opportunity the prophet Elijah had in his encounter with God. It happened to be the lowest time in his life. In the book of 1 Kings 19:9 Elijah had come to a cave and decided to hide there and the word of the Lord came to him and He said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Exhausted and feeling sad, he replied to the Lord in verse 10 that he had done his best to obey Him and said,“the sons of Israel have forsaken Thy covenant, torn down Thine altars and killed Thy prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”

Elijah was ready to call it quits and the Lord gave him a command that blew him away! He said in verse 11, “. . . Go forth, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” As he obeyed what the Lord told him, the Lord was passing by. But before Elijah could step out of the cave a horrific wind hit the side of the mountain shattering the rocks. The Lord wasn’t in the wind or even the fire that rained from heaven after that. I’m sure Elijah wondered what would happen next, a volcanic explosion!

But, instead in the still silence, Elijah heard a gentle whisper. He knew it was the Lord. He got up and stood at the opening of the cave and hid his face with his coat. At the end of verse 13 the voice of the Lord came to Elijah again and asked, “What are you doing here Elijah?” Elijah responded the same as he had earlier and God gave him instructions in verses 15 -18 that he wasn’t the only one refusing to worship idols. There were 7,000 others who had not left God to follow Baal.

Notice that God whispered. To hear someone whisper, you need to be near him or her. Whispering doesn’t work very well if you’re speaking to someone who’s standing on the other side of the room. You see, God doesn’t want a long distance relationship; He wants a close, intimate one.

What you need to keep in mind is that God speaks in many different voices and if we have that close intimate relationship with Him, we know when it’s God speaking to us. The best way to hear God is to spend time reading His word, the Bible.

Do you have that kind of relationship with God? Do you want to have that intimate relationship with Him? You can and I can show you how. Just leave me a comment and I’ll be glad to tell you how.

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“As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance.” (1 Peter 1:14)

A fellow student I worked with while attending Bible college was deep into evangelism and enjoyed sharing Christ regularly and at any opportunity that presented itself. Oftentimes he was quick to share with me the experience he had in sharing Christ with someone on the streets. It could have been the night before or a couple of days prior. Now, I enjoy sharing Christ also and love to hear testimonies about how someone came to know Jesus. However, my friend seemed to think it was rewarding to sort of brag about having led someone to Christ. I can understand his desire to share his evangelistic moments.

I have often wondered how many people have actually progressed from accepting Christ to discipleship. There is a misconception that we humans can choose to accept Christ only because we need Him as our Saviour and that we have the right to postpone our obedience to Him as Lord, as long as we want to!

I believe this misconception has sprung up naturally from a misunderstanding of what the Bible actually says about Christian discipleship and obedience. It is found in nearly all full gospel literature.

I think the following is a fair statement of what I was taught in my early Christian experience and it certainly needs a lot of modifying and a great many qualifiers to save us from being in error:

“We are saved by accepting Christs as our Saviour;

We are sanctified by accepting Christ as our Lord;

We may do the first without doing the second!”

The truth is that salvation apart from obedience is unknown in scripture. Peter makes it plain that we are “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience.”

It is a tragedy that we hear, “Come to Jesus!” Then later we hear, “Take Jesus as Lord!” The fact that we hear this everywhere does not make it right. To urge men and women to believe in two Christs is bad teaching for no one can take either or one without the other. We’re not saved by believing in an office nor in a work.

I have heard well-meaning workers say, “Come and believe on the finished work.” That work is not going to save you. The Bible does not tell us to believe in an office or a work, but to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the Person who has done that work and holds those offices.

Peter’s emphasis is on obedience among the scattered and persecuted Christians of his day.

The important thing to me here is that Peter speaks of his fellow Christians as “obedient children.” He did not command them to be obedient. On the contrary, he is assuming that they are believers, and therefore they are also obedient. So, as obedient children, they would do what is necessary.

I submit that obedience is taught throughout the entire Bible and that true obedience is one of the toughest requirements of the Christian life. Apart from obedience, there can be no salvation, for salvation without obedience is a self-contradictory impossibility.

If God had made us humans to be mere machines we would not have the power of self-determination. But since He made us in His own image and made us to be moral creatures, He has given us that power of self-determination.

We do not have the right of self-determination because God has given us only the power to choose evil. Seeing that God is a holy God and we are moral creatures having the power but not the right to choose evil, no man has any right to lie.

Oh, we have the power to lie but no man has the right to lie. We have the power to steal—I could go out and get myself a better coat than the one I own. I could slip out through a side door and get away with the coat. I have that power, but I do not have that right!

More to the point, we only have the right to be good—we never have the right to be bad because God is good. We only have the right to be holy; we never have the right to be unholy. If we are unholy we are using a right that is not ours. Adam and Eve had no moral right to eat of that tree of good and evil, but they took it and usurped the right that was not theirs.

So how can we insist and teach that our Lord Jesus Christ can be our Saviour without being our Lord? How can we continue to teach that we can be saved without any thought of obedience to our Sovereign Lord?

Suppose I were to slip into a hospital and tell the staff, I need a blood transfusion or perhaps an X-ray of my gall bladder. After they have ministered to me and given me their services, do I just slip out of the hospital again with a cheery “Goodbye”—as though I owe them nothing and it was kind of them to help me in my time of need?

Now, that may sound like a grotesque concept to you, but it does pretty well draw the picture of those who have been taught that they can use Jesus as a Saviour in their time of need without owning Him as Sovereign and Lord and without owing Him obedience and allegiance.

The Bible never in any way gives us such a concept of salvation. Nowhere are we ever led to believe that we can use Jesus as a Saviour and not own Him as our Lord. He is the Lord and as the Lord He saves us, because He has all the offices of Saviour and Christ and High Priest and Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption! He is all of these things and all of these are embodied in Him as Christ the Lord.

My friend, we are not allowed to come to Jesus Christ as shrewd, clever operators saying, “We will take this and this, but we won’t take that!” We don’t come to Him as one buying furniture for a house and declare, “I will take this table, but I don’t want that chair,” as though we are wanting one Christ over a different Christ.

Absolutely not! It is either all of Christ or none of Christ! To the world—a Christ who does not need our apologies, one Christ over another Christ, one Christ who will either be Lord of all or who will not be Lord at all!

Therefore, one who accepts Jesus as Saviour must also accept Him as Lord!

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Memorial Day is almost upon us. What do we usually do on this weekend? We go to the lake and swim or ski or fish or just camp out and have fun. Many people visit cemeteries and leave wreaths or flags at the graveside of family members who served our country and gave the ultimate sacrifice. These men or women who sacrificed it all for us deserve the respect of our remembrance of them and what they did.

I had the opportunity to work at a funeral home and cemetery and guide people to the graves of those who have served. Each time I did, I paused to remember them as well. After all, I served in the Armed Forces also during the Viet Nam war and lost friends I served with. So, it is with honor that I stand at the graveside and bow my head in silent prayer as flags were placed near a loved one. It is my hope to get to visit the Viet Nam Memorial Wall in Washington D.C. before I die and see the names of those I knew.

While others are using the weekend to have fun with families, I do not hold that against them. I do however wish I could see families pause at a special time and give silent time to remember those who fought and died. Wouldn’t it be nice to see those who have fun take time to recognize the men and women who fought for that freedom?

Memorial Day started as an event to honor Union soldiers who had died during the American Civil War. It was inspired by the way people in the Southern states honored their dead. After World War I, it was extended to include all men and women who died in any war or military action.

Memorial Day was originally known as Decoration Day. The current name for this day did not come into use until after World War II. Decoration Day and then Memorial Day used to be held on May 30, regardless of the day of the week, on which it fell. In 1968, the Uniform Holidays Bill was passed as part of a move to use federal holidays to create three-day weekends. This meant that that, from 1971, Memorial Day holiday has been officially observed on the last Monday in May. However, it took a longer period for all American states to recognize the new date.